After weeks of travelling and sightseeing we have decided it is time for a holiday! So the last couple of weeks we have slowed right down and holidayed on the west coast of Florida. This whole coast is rather spectacular and we have decided that we much prefer it to the east. However, we have seen much more of the west so that may be an unfair statement. After just two nights in St Petersburg to allow Peter to attend a work meeting we continued our travels north. St Petersburg as a city didn't have anything to attract us other than the lovely beaches which extended north and south from there so we decided to continue our travels north. Within a few miles of built up area we arrived at Clearwater and if we hadn't just commenced our travel for the day we would have found a camping ground and stayed. In hindsight perhaps we should have. It was very built up, but with the summer crowds gone it looked very pleasant. The sand was a lovely white like colour, and the water very appealing. This beach is certainly on our return too list. Soon we arrived in Dunedin. Now for those that don't know there is a city called Dunedin in New Zealand, known as the Scotland of down under, so this area certainly warranted a look at. The only resemblance that I could see was that there was a figure of a Scotsman by the welcome signpost! This is another lovely beach area but perhaps not so affluent as the neighbouring Clearwater. We weren't tempted to stay so we continued north. We bypassed the highway and our road clung to the coast for most of our journey. We were heading specifically to Panama City Beach but needed to break the journey part way so "Camp Walmart" in the country town of Perry was our choice for overnight. Since we arrived in the U.S. back in June we have travelled a little west, then north to Ontario and Quebec and east to Nova Scotia in Canada and then zig zagged down the East Coast of the U.S. all the way to Key West and we are now heading north again. We have been in the one time zone the whole time but no longer. Somewhere between Perry and Panama City (both in Florida) we put the clocks back one hour. The GPS knew! We had thought that we must have been going to low fly the miles that day to reach our destination in the time shown. Having been to Everglades City which is in fact a small seaside town we were not surprised that Panama City was not large however the coastline is lined with large hotels. It seems that Panama City Beach is just a continuation of the coastline and then it changes names a few more times within a few miles. However, all the beaches were divine - white sand, a few waves, excellent access and best of all warm water and warm enough that I was happy to go swimming in the sea which says a lot. There was some green algae in some areas one day and we were told that this was caused by the warm water temperatures. I can put up with the algae to get the warm water. We stayed in Panama City Beach in a camping ground that had a path leading to the beach. The camping ground was far from full, a few more over the week-end but very few during the week. Summer has officially finished so there are few holidaymakers about. The camp had two pools and we had one to ourselves most of the time. The temperatures are still very pleasant, and we choose to eat dinner outside most nights and fortunately we seem to have left the no see ums behind. There are a few mosquito and biting flies but they can normally be controlled by repellant. Over the last two weeks we have done very little sightseeing but just enjoyed the coast and it is a beautiful coastline not visited by the majority of overseas visitors to the U.S. We have stayed at least three or four nights at each stop before moving on. It is interesting to see that there are a lot of family orientated activities, like water parks, zoos, pools, small theme parks etc but these are all closed now for the season with signage saying they will re-open in May 2016. We did wonder just how many of the huge hotels along the coast had many guests staying. Our next stop was Navarre Beach in a very upmarket camping ground for us, with the fall season rates being in our favour. The camp ground was nearly full of Class A motor homes - these are the full bus size motor homes that more often than not tow a car behind. The campground was purpose built and beautifully laid out leading down to a small beachfront with it's own jetty and fishing pavilion, club house, pool etc. How come we were so lucky we weren't sure, but we were given a water view site so could sit outside all day and evening enjoying the surroundings. Navarre itself has a lovely long beach with quite a few holidaymakers and a popular jetty for fishing etc. Most of the jetties have a cost to walk or fish from and this one was cheap at $1 per person. We have found some as much as $6 just to walk the length and always there are added costs for fishing. From this jetty we could see the sea turtles swimming in the clear sea water. One of the days we drove to Pensacola to the National Naval Aviation Museum which is a military and aerospace museum located within the Naval base. I had researched the museum and decided it was worth driving an hour from Navarre to visit yet had no idea just how good it would actually be. I didn't count how many planes were on display, hanging from the ceiling or at ground level but there were many. We went to the IMAX theatre screening of the D-Day movie (there were four different films on offer throughout the day) which was really moving, checked out the three simulators, went to the 1941 retro street of houses and shops, ate at the restaurant and at the end of the day found we had missed a couple of really interesting sections. Oh well, something new for next time should we ever visit again. While on the Naval base we paid a short visit to the Pensacola lighthouse - another great example still in use today. As we drove through the base we passed the huge military cemetery with all the rows of white headstones. It was impossible to guess just how many headstones there were. There is also an RV motor camp but we couldn't book in there as it is for military personnel, active, retired or volunteers, only. We have found that there are quite a few camping grounds in various places for military personnel only. The U.S. Certainly seem to look after their military personnel with discounts at most tourist places, many restaurants, camping grounds etc. If you check a map of the North western coast of Florida (which is locally known as Emerald Coast) you will see that there is a very narrow island running just off the major land. We have travelled on and off this island, called Santa Rosa Island, as we have travelled north. From our stay in Navarre we crossed yet another long bridge on to the island and continued along the National Seashore to our next destination - Fort Pickens State Park. We enjoy staying in the state parks - the sites are quite large with good distance between neighbours, in this case lots of shade, picnic tables, fire rings, electricity and water and excellent bathroom and shower facilities and access to about 10-12 miles of beaches. This park is close to Pensacola Beach which is a very popular holiday area with lots of hotels and holiday rentals. Again all the summer recreational activities were closed and even some of the restaurants. We spent the four days relaxing, checking out the actual fort (Fort Pickens which dates back to 1834) which is open to the public every day and was also open one night to explore with candle light with the volunteers dressed in period military costumes. The beaches of this coast are beautiful - soft white sand, sand dunes with clear blue warm, really warm, water. There were a few small waves but certainly insufficient for anyone wanting to surf. It was just my type of beach as I hate getting into cold water. We enjoyed swimming each day knowing that from here we basically leave the coast behind. The camping ground at Fort Pickens has close to 200 sites in two different areas. The camp was full for the week-end and by Sunday night there were only about fifty sites still in use. We were due to leave on the Monday so during the evening, with rain forecast, we completed most of our packing up. It was really a blessing that we had as overnight the forecast tropical storm arrived and we had over seven inches of rain, with thunder and lightning for what seemed like most of the night. The camp ground host spent from 3 am driving around the camp checking on campers. We were fine and dry but our neighbours in their tent weren't quite so lucky. We had decided that we would stay over another night rather than drive in the stormy conditions but that was all to change after a visit from the local police. The storm had only just begun, they were expecting another eight inches of rain, and the next high tide was due at 2.15 pm. With the single road along the thin strand of island already under water there was an extremely high possibility that the road could get washed away in the high tide. This would result in the camping ground being cut off potentially for anything up to a week. We were already without power, a generator was trying it's best to pump water, and the thought of being cut off wasn't appealing at all as there was no other road out. We decided it was time to get out of there! Within minutes we had the caravan hooked up and we ever so slowly drove the eight miles or so out to Pensacola Beach where we joined the mainland. The road was under about a foot of salt water most of the way and we had it lapping the bottoms of the doors of the car and the underside of the caravan was in water. As we slowly drove along there were areas where the waves were breaking channels through the sand dunes, filling the road and continuing across the dunes on the opposite side. It could have been a very scary trip but fortunately we were in daylight, it wasn't windy or raining and it was a matter of just trying to judge the depth of the water, keep off the very soft sand in the edges and ignore the fact that it was salt water as there was noting we could do. We got through, we were safe and that was all that mattered. What surprised us was that not everyone took the police advice but some chose to remain. Checking the news later in the day confirmed that more rain than forecast had dumped on the area and the road was definitely closed. We just hope our fellow campers were all safe. So after such an eventful twenty four hours we drove just a couple of hours and stopped in Mobile, Alabama overnight. We have now left Florida behind. Enroute we had diverted to check out the beach conditions at Gulf Shore in Alabamba. The beach was a continuation of the lovely white sand of the whole coast but here the storm conditions were no where near as severe. Our "holiday" is now over, we have just three weeks left on the road and there are places to go and things to see. Next stop New Orleans, Louisiana.